Cause and Effect
by cstar7777
Summary: Alexia Sterlin is an Imperial Cadet sent on a mission to bring back anything of interest to the Empire from an old communications tower. But after the mission goes a little off the books and her partner gets injured, she finds herself facing off against a high-risk level rebel named Ezra Bridger, who's interested in something taken from the tower. [Heavy OC Focus]
1. A Broken Holodisk

"Disclaimer: I do not own, or claim to own Star Wars or any of its properties. The only part of this work that is mine is the original character. Everything else is owned by Lucasfilm/DisneyDisclaimer: I do not own, or claim to own Star Wars or any of its properties. The only part of this work that is mine is the original character. Everything else is owned by Lucasfilm/Disney.

* * *

An investigation mission was all the statement was, and it was not even the slightest bit true. And Cadet Alexia Sterlin was aware of this, but chose not to speak up. If she did as she was told, and showed promise. Perhaps she could finally be promoted to a rank she felt was more suited to her talents. She was not simply a Junker after all.

The fifteen-year-old was placed with one other cadet to move anything that may be of worth from an old communications tower. Something deemed worthy of investigation. She was sure that based on the previous rumors about higher ranking officers entering this specific tower that there would be nothing of use to them, nothing that would be too important.

This was more than likely the exact reason two cadets were sent on this job. If anything of worth was found, then it was good for the cadets, but not worth wasting other resources on. Though Alexia was not so sure. If this was a place that tended to have frequent enough visitors, then there must be something about this tower. Something that higher ups left out thinking it was not worth their time to know.

Alexia went ahead, up the tower and through the easily sliding door that led to what, at first glance seemed like a hoarder's treasure trove, with somewhat of a livable setup in there. The cadet took off her helmet to get a better look that what the protection allowed for. She reached towards the back of her head to tighten up her loose ponytail holding back her mess of black hair while she glanced at a few pictures. Then her eyes lingered on the stormtrooper helmets. Her hands dropped and she reached towards and pulled the helmet over, tossing it around in her hands. She stared at it for along moment, realizing that this helmet was not the original property of whomever took residence here. It was here as some sort of… trophy.

Maybe a delinquent who wanted something to hide behind. Or… perhaps something worse to her? A rebel?

As Alexia stared at the helmet, she heard the distant laughter of a memory, and zoned to allow the memory to take hold. Of a smaller, younger Alexia running up to two stormtroopers giggling and reaching up and saying, "Mama, Papa! Can I come with you to work?"

One trooper reached up to take off her helmet, an older woman with brunette hair, blue eyes, and Alexia's face smiled down at her and said, "Not today sweetie, it's too dangerous today. Gotta make sure you and the rest of Lothal stay safe, okay?"  
"Okay…"  
"Hey don't worry kiddo." The other trooper responded as well, taking off their helmet to reveal an older male with black hair and hazel eyes, "We'll be back soon before you know it."

They did that day, but two years ago, the two never came home. The day a dangerous Rodian was out and searches were to be had. The day a team of rebels wreaked havoc on a day of celebration towards the empire. A day that should have been an easy day for her parents, and should not have resulted in her becoming an orphan.

That Empire Day two years ago.

"Sterlin…"

Alexia's grip on the helmet grew ever tighter, not hearing the name break through to her thoughts, "Alexia…" eventually a hand grabbed her shoulder and said, "Lex."

Alexia tried to hold back a gasp but her body reacted in surprise as she dropped the helmet and turned to see the second cadet had finally made it up to her, "Are you alright? You haven't been moved since I got up here."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks Copley." Alexia replied before pulling their shoulder away from their hand and picking up the helmet to place it back where it was, "It's just, a lot of junk and dusty helmets is all."

"Nothing of interest yet then?"  
"I think there was at one point." Alexia replied, walking over to a table where a mark once held some large object, but the machine's placement on the bench made it so the weathering around it happened sooner, making the surface under it look much cleaner, "But I think the commander or someone got to it first."

The other cadet sighed in disappointment and said, "Well, if we can't bring back anything good, we can try to bring back at least… something."  
"Are you suggesting we shirk responsibilities?"  
Copley's body movement shifted uncomfortably as they held up their hands, "Not at all, I'm saying we should bring back something rather than nothing. Even if we can't find anything of dire importance."

Alexia looked at their partner like there was no difference between the phrasing, and the other sigh in defeat, beginning to shift through boxes and drawers. Alexia walked along the walls, and beside the sliding door, she spotted a banner with the imperial insignia on it, and a bright x across it and Alexia growled, "So it's a rebel?" 

"We're not here to speculate. But it might not be a rebel, it could just be someone who dislikes the Empire. I'm not defending their position, but there's a difference between silent disapproval and active disapproval." The cadet explained.

"You mean the difference between a silent traitor and a terrorist?" Alexia asked, not sure if she'd get an answer. Copley stood up from their spot and responded with slight disagreement in their voice, "Sure."

Alexia climbed up towards where the bed lay, and she saw a drawn piece of paper with sketched out places that seemed to be on a memory based map of Lothal. With key places x'd off on a map, usually common smuggling places and she rolled her eyes, "Okay, so whoever was here was a thief, or smuggler? At least that's what I got from this…"

Alexia jumped down and knocked some bolt or piece on junk on the ground over towards a corner and the cadet stopped to look only out of curiosity over what they just kicked. There was a noise that sounded odd that came from the corner, and Alexia stopped to walk over and investigate. She found a broken disc of some kind. A holodisk? She wasn't fully sure, but she sighed and said, "And a piece of junk."  
"Well, it looks restorable. Why don't we bring that as a secondary and uh… the map? Maybe if we can't get any info here, we can shut down some smuggler spots they may not be aware- "  
"None of these places are around anymore, not since the siege, when they took away that slum or whatever they called it." Alexia commented and began walking away with the stuff, grabbing her helmet as she left for the door. Copley followed suit behind her saying, "Tarkintown?"  
"Sure, whatever." Alexia replied with disgust as she put her helmet on.

* * *

Their mission to free Lothal had failed before it could even begin. Whether it was due to a leak of intelligence which made their base an immediate target or not, it resulted in Ezra spending a lot of his focus on home. And while he knew there were more important issues to deal with, something was calling to him to head home. Not some evil whispers of a lure from Maul, or anything of the sort. It was the same familiar calling he had the day he found Kanan, and ended up joining the crew of the Ghost.

It was one that drew him, and he felt confident enough in this feeling. A little too confident. To the point where he snuck off with the New Phantom before he even gave any kind of explanation to Kanan or Hera. He just knew that if he even mentioned he was heading towards Lothal in their current state they would put it as an absolute no. Even if they trusted his feelings, he hadn't a clue how long it'd last.

The blockade of Lothal was not back yet, at least not the full size. There were ships in the area, probably looking for stragglers like him. The raven-haired teen scanned around for a blind spot, which was much easier in this state than earlier, and he flew into it before docking his ship in what really was the middle of nowhere, he did his best to conceal the ship in hills, so anyone patrolling wouldn't immediately see and invade the ship.

But it felt good to be home.

Ezra took a deep breath and said, "Alright Ezra, focus, try to figure out where you need to go…" he felt the welcoming hum of the force pull him in and he began to run across the fields. The hum stopped when he reached a hill that was close enough for him to see his tower. His gaze shifted and he ducked quickly as he noticed two imperial speeders at the base of it, and two cadets climbing onto them. Perhaps his timing was a coincidence, or some will of the force. But the speeders began to move back towards the city.

"Now what exactly are you doing in there…?" Ezra asked no one. He knew Kallus gave his Fulcrum transmissions from his old home, and that the location was compromised, but he did not think anything of worth was left there. Well, not worth anything to them. For him, certainly.

Ezra got up to start running towards his tower when one of the speeders of the two imperial cadets began to short circuit and the cadet jumped off of it. The other one turned around quickly as the speeder exploded. They seemed hurt, and since they were too close to the tower, Ezra was not going to make it without them noticing.

Ezra did not exactly bring a helmet with him, but he did hope that he could hack into the frequency, mostly to get a read on whether they were both going to ride the speeder or get a ride sent in.

"…74835… cadet Copley's bike overheated and ended up exploding. We think perhaps it was one of the older speeder types. We would like to request a lift, as Copley received an injury to the leg."  
"Affirmative. We are sending out a medical speeder to your location. Please stand by. Once Cadet Copley has been collected, you may proceed to bay 2 with the transferred items. Was anything damaged from the speeder?"  
"Negative, all items were of a small size and able to be carried back in a smaller container in a bag."  
"Please confirm items again to ensure none were lost."  
"A hand-drawn map and a broken holodisk."

"Holodisk?" Ezra asked himself. He had a feeling what the map may be but he did not remember any holodisks in his home. Unless it was one of Kallus'. But that didn't feel like the right answer.

And for some reason, having thoughts on that holodisk had that familiar feeling he knew meant that it had something to deal with his adventure.

He had a bad feeling about this one.

* * *

Author's notes:

"Oh hey, you're back. Where've you been?"  
Gone, pretty much. And I'm not really back either. I had an idea for this four part story and I just HAD to get it out to you guys. It's gonna be a once-every-Tuesday type deal for the next four weeks.

It's gonna feel OC driven, I'm sorry. This idea just sparked and I really love it, and if you guys don't like it I'm sorry. I just hope it'll be a fun enough adventure.

"Are you gonna finish those other stories of yours?"  
Nope. I wrote a message about them in their reviews of those stories. I didn't want to update the stories to tell you I dropped them, I gave permission to finish those though.

"This doesn't seem like Ezra?"  
Give it time, I needed to pull him on over in a "what if" scenario kind of way I'm not fully in love with either. I'm writing this before season 4 so, if season 4 has a way that's easier for you to imagine this transitioning from, go for it. But that's thinking to the future.

See you next week!


	2. The Lothcat Whisperer

**Disclaimer: I do not own, or claim to own Star Wars or any of its properties. The only part of this work that is mine is the original character. Everything else is owned by Lucasfilm/DisneyDisclaimer: I do not own, or claim to own Star Wars or any of its properties. The only part of this work that is mine is the original character. Everything else is owned by Lucasfilm/Disney.**

* * *

Copley was holding their leg and breathing through their teeth sharply trying to stifle the pain. The world seemed red while they felt pain to them and their attempts at coping with it seemed to be going about as bad as one would expect. Alexia was off of their speeder at this point trying to do as much immediate first aid as they possibly could without doing more injury in the process. The cadet gasped in pain as Alexia tightened a bandage around their leg and the cadet reached up to take their helmet off so they could breathe properly. Copley turned out to be a darker-skinned, 15-year-old boy with buzzed off blond hair and they were sweating bullets from trying to catch their breath.

Alexia had to stop and say, "Breathe, okay? Breathe."  
"Wasn't this supposed to be a simple operation?!"  
"Maybe more rebels got into the bike plant and sabotaged them. We were having issues before."  
"But why would it work there and not back?!" Copley yelled out, moving their leg and crying out in pain in the process and Alexia got aggressive, "If you don't start calming yourself I'm going to knock you out for your own sake."

Copley leaned back against a nearby rock and did their best to ease the pain. Alexia shifted to look towards town, hoping that maybe she'd see the transport coming in the distance and Copley said, "You might as well sit down too. With all the rebellion, lately their priority for treatment of a cadet is secondary. I'll live, relax."  
"I am relaxed." Alexia spat, turning back towards the boy who looked at her skeptically and said, "If you're relaxed, then I'm relaxed."

There was a pause of silence before Alexia heard movement in the grass and looked to quickly make sure there was no wildlife heading their way, when the sight of a cloaked figure began to walk towards them. Alexia straightened up and announced, "Halt civilian. This scene is under imperial investigation. We ask that you- "

"I saw the explosion when I was working out on the fields. Are you two alright? I wanted to make sure you both were taken care of." The voice was a younger voice, disguising itself to be older. But disguising it well enough where Alexia and Copley were none the wiser. Still, Alexia walked a bit closer saying, "This does not concern you, civilian. If you do not follow orders we will be forced to place you under arrest."

The cloaked figure chuckled and walked closer and spoke, ignoring the request, and confirming it with their voice, "Nonsense, nonsense! I want to make sure you get proper care before you are picked up. After all, good soldiers like yourselves deserve all the help you can get for fighting the good fight." The figure finally made it in front of Copley and waved their hand saying, "You want me to give you first aid."

Copley stared at them and repeated back, "I want you to give me first aid."  
"Copley." Alexia responded with a hostile tone, clearly indicating how angry she was at the very idea that he would agree to this. Copley looked over at her and asked, "What? There's no harm in having someone help…"

The cloaked figure looked over and waved their hand, "There's no harm in help."

Alexia seemed to just stare silently at the figure for a moment. There was no verbal response from her before she finally just said, "You can help for a few minutes, but you need to stay here and confirm to my superiors that you helped out. That way I don't have them questioning why a civilian was here and thinking you did something."

There was a long moment of hesitation from the cloaked figure before they waved their hand again and said, "Staying here that long isn't necessary."  
Alexia had no delay responding with certainty, "Yes, it is. In fact…"

The cadet walked forward and said, "It will be required now that you stay… or else I'm going to have to report that this crime was sabotage and that you are a rebel intentionally sabotaging imperial equipment."

"What?" the voice suddenly broke from a disguise for but a moment to reveal the teen's normal voice, before they cleared their voice and continued with the fake voice, "I mean, that would be a lie."  
"Would it? Why would someone be so far away from the city in the middle of nowhere. There are no farms, or any buildings around here for you to be staying in."

The cloaked one scoffed and began working first aid on Copley saying, "I will have you know that I am a fourth generation Lothcat whisperer!"  
"L…Lothcat whisperer?" Copley asked confused as the figure began cleaning their wound, "Lothcats! They speak the wisest of tongues. Their stories, spectacular! Why, there was a Lothcat named Purroski who once told me a very wise proverb."

They stood up and walked behind Copley and placed their hands on his shoulder, "The ones who growl loudest are the ones who shall be heard. Twelve lothcat whispers will be deafened under the screaming of one loud lothcat."

"And you… needed a cat to tell you that? It seems like common sense." Alexia replied, buying into this craziness before the man responded, "But there is an underlying message to their tale young one. One you may not understand."

The cloaked figure quickly made their way next to Alexia and wrapped their arm around her and pulled her close, his hand raised up in their air, "Sometimes the loud minority can mask the silent majority!"

There was silence as Alexia asked, "So… common sense?"  
"The idea is that the majority, the largest group." The cloaked figure knocked into Alexia, throwing her off balance for a moment. The bag she had moving rather rapidly on her side before she straightened up and went still, "Should speak up, or their message may go unheard."

"Wow… fascinating. So, you were getting ready to perform first aid?" Alexia replied, looking up trying to get a good look at the figure's face before they had moved away and began speaking, "Actually, the work you did before was spectacular, that there really was nothing I could do."

"A shame…" Alexia grumbled before they began to walk away saying, "I hope you two end up making it back safely, and soon!" before the figure began to quickly walk away. Alexia seemed to stare off for a moment and by the time they'd walked away she yelled, "Hey, hey! Wait a minute!"

"Eh, it's not worth it Lex. They were a little crazy." Copley replied, motioning their finger in 'crazy' gesture beside their head. Alexia sighed and said, "Perhaps you're right." Alexia looked over to see the transports beginning to make their way and she spoke up, "Finally! What took them so long. Now we can finally-"

Alexia began searching her bag for the items and, well the map was still there but the holodisk was gone and she began looking everywhere frantically. Copley raised an eyebrow and asked, "Alexia? What's wrong?"  
"The holodisk. It's gone! I had it right here. I just checked it before radioing. It should be-"

The cadet turned to look over towards where cloaked figure was going and she hissed out, "He took it, the crazy one's a thief that's what he is."  
"Alexia, you don't even know that, come on let's keep looking around, maybe you need to double check-"

Without even listening to the rest, Alexia ran over to the speeder and got on it saying, "I'm gonna go after him. Tell them I'm chasing down a thief who stole our supplies and that I'll radio in as soon as I can."  
"Alexia, wait!" Copley yelled before she sped off on the speeder in the direction the thief took off in.

* * *

Ezra was within running distance to the ship, but in still an open enough space to be seen. The young jedi rolled the holodisk around between his two fingers saying, "This thing is broken. What could even be on this?" he whispered to himself. He moved his hood down so the disguise was done and said, "Well, at least it was easy… maybe I could have done that without any jedi tricks…"

As Ezra began to get closer, he heard the sounds of a speeder coming from the distance and he quickly put back on his cloak. Assuming that whoever it was, was going to pass by with no problems, but just in case, he started making his way to the ship faster. But as he thought he'd made it safe, the speeder slowed and a familiar female voice yelled, "Don't move!"

Ezra turned over towards the speeder and the girl was holding a blaster up towards Ezra, which made him hold up his hands, "You're under arrest for theft and suspected vandalism."  
"I didn't steal anything, ma'am."  
"Your hand."

Ezra realized at that moment he was still holding the disk in his hand. He pulled it towards his face and looked at it, then played stupid and said, "My hand is fully organic."  
"The holodisk in your hand is property of the empire."  
"Oh this thing? Please, this is junk. Why would I steal that?"  
"We're both asking the same question, sir." The girl responded as she reached up to grab the comm of her helmet.

Ezra bit his lip before cutting her off before she pressed it, "Wait. Okay. I stole it. But I didn't damage your bike, I swear. If I give you back the holodisk, will I be able to leave with no problems?"

The cadet was still for a moment before saying, "Only if you come back to confirm you were a witness."  
"So it's a no then?"

There was silence between the two before the girl reached up and Ezra, out of nervousness towards what potentially could happen. Ran over and pushed the girl off the bike, trying to grab her blaster. She tried to fire it and reach for the comm. The shot went off, but missed the boy, and she was thrown off the bike and hit her head on the ground and let out a sound of pain. Ezra ran over and pulled off her helmet and tried to run out of there. Since the comm was on her helmet, there was no way she was going to be able to radio if she had it. Terrible design really.

The cadet got up as quick as she could and fired the blaster at Ezra, who was managing to dodge the blasters far better than should have humanly be possible. Barely stumbling. He finally got behind a rock, but was unable to get to the ship because every time he tried to rush to the opening to get to the ship, the girl fired pretty much perfectly.

The girl realized a blaster was probably going to get her nowhere at this point. She reached into her bag and grabbed a smoke detonator and threw it in the direction of Ezra. When it exploded, Ezra covered his eyes and tried to move back more. Then he felt a quick blow to the face. It hurt like crazy, but he managed to push back and tried to gain composure.

Ezra's eyes closed and he slowly tried to make it through the smoke to make it back to the ship. But as he made his way to the clearing, the girl made it as well and threw him into the wall. She was strong, from the training she received from training. But not strong enough to hold down Ezra. But she did manage to knee him and grab the helmet and press the comm, "This is C-748. I am-"

Ezra grabbed her head and tried to pull off the helmet again. Managing to shut off the comm but not stop the girl from kicking him very harshly in the stomach. Ezra grabbed her helmet and threw it as far away as he could as the comm could be heard responding, "C-748, your comm was shut off. Please repeat or follow up."

The girl quickly ran towards the helmet and Ezra decided the better idea would be to run for the ship and get out of there before the empire could even get to the location or find him. But as he ran up on the ramp of the ship and turned around, he realized something he hadn't expected.

The cadet stopped running towards the helmet, and was coming at him nearly full speed. As he went to shut the ramp. The cadet rushed inside and made it just in time for the ship to lock up. Ezra grabbed at her, "Kid I don't wanna hurt you!"  
"Then surrender!"  
"…can't do." Ezra replied quickly, throwing the girl at the wall to knock her out. As she hit the wall, she grabbed her head and looked up dizzily and said, "Wait… I recognize you… aren't you-" but the girl was out cold before she could finish the sentence.

Ezra took a deep breath to calm down and was about to open the ramp in order to push her outside, when a sudden storm began to hit. Realizing the state the girl was in, he wasn't exactly ready to let the girl just die out here, especially if no one could find her in time.

Ezra was stuck with a dilemma, and it resulted in him handcuffing the girl to one of the railings, so if she woke up she wouldn't escape.

Ezra was going to at least wait for the storm to let up before letting her go. Then he was leaving her here. He would radio in claiming he found the cadet passed out and run off leaving nothing else. But until then, he looked at the holodisk and began working on a plan to fix it. Wondering why he was drawn to what ended up a broken piece of plastic.


End file.
